The UN's response has been to refuse to answer the Press' questions and to require it to have “minders” to cover most events inside the UN. On December 16 as Inner City Press reported on this and Ban, its Periscope broadcasting camera was smashed directly in front of an event honoring Ban, as he moves to run for South Korea's presidency.

As Inner City Press even earlier exclusively reported, Ban has allowed Han Seung-soo to be simultaneously a UN official, the Under Secretary General for Water and Disaster Risk Reduction, and on the boards of directors of Doosan Infracore and of Standard Chartered Bank which has contracts with the UN.

By 2008, Inner City Press asked Ban, here, "about the responsibility of private corporations doing business in Myanmar, giving the specific example of South Korea's Daewoo and its deal with Myanmar Oil and Gas. I cannot comment on specifics, Ban said, adding that 'whoever has influence' should try to convince Myanmar to improve its record."

On the morning of December 27, a UN work day, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's three top spokespeople questions including

"please state the business activities in Myanmar of Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki-ho, not only through KD Power which your Office has stated it understands Ban Ki-ho has left, but also through Bosung Powertec and any other company and again, all details of the “UN delegation” the link regarding which Inner City Press has previously provided your office in early November"

and

"Please state the date and separately content of the Secretary General last three communications with Park Yeon-cha or any other official or employee of Taekwang."

More than a full day later, there were no answers, not even a confirmation of receipt. On the morning of December 28 on this Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's full paid Office of the Spokesperson:

"please definitely state that dates on which Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki-ho began and if applicable ended employment with Bosung Powertec and KD Power or any of their affiliates, and during those time frames the companies' business activities in Myanmar."

Five hours later, the spokespeople sheepishly closed their office and left, no answers. Having received calls from media in South Korea who have falsely been told that Bosung Powertec does no business in Myanmar, that there was no UN delegation, Inner City Press now publishes this:

Power instrument makers rush off to Myanmar, a land of opportunity

Small and medium power instrument makers are continually entering the Myanmarese market in order to take the Myanmarese government’s long-term power development plan as a business opportunity.

Bosung Power entered into a contract to supply power transmission tower manufacturing facilities in 2009 and 2011 with MEC, a Myanmarese national steel company, and has already set foot into the market. Following a Myanmarese branch establishment in 2011, the company is promoting the local market entry in full swing. Recently, Bosung Power is preparing a site for its own production plant in an area at a 1.5-hour driving distance from Yangon.KD Power has been promoting to supply photovoltaic power generation system and DC household appliances since May to suburban areas of Myanmar where the power supply conditions are poor.

On December 26 it was reported in South Korea that even while Ban Ki-moon was UN Secretary General, he received $30,000 from a businessman, in a restaurant. See here, including Park Yeon-cha (as well as Vietnamese minister Nguyen Dy Nien) with this quote:

""It would have been early 2007, shortly after Ban took office as Secretary General of the United Nations. New York has a restaurant owner who knows him well. Park called the owner of the restaurant and said, "If Ban comes to eat, give me $ 30,000 as a gift to celebrate the inauguration of the secretary general." In fact, we know that money was handed to Ban. ""

Did the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services ever look into this? We're still waiting to hear from them. As to Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople, they have refused to answer Inner City Press' written questions back to November 25 about Ban Ki-ho, etc.

Ban Ki-moon has largely been immune from accountability for ten years, due to a mixture of sycophantry and, when seen as necessary in 2016, censorship, eviction and restriction of the investigative Press. But in 2017...

It is reported that Ban Ki-moon will push the button to drop the Times Square ball on New Years Eve, seemingly arranged by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's relentlessly pro UN Office of International Affairs (which never answeredInner City Press about any de Blasio position on Ban Ki-moon having shirked accountability for his UN bringing deadly cholera to Haiti.)

But the moment that ball drops, Ban Ki-moon's legal immunity is over. We'll have more on this.

Then Ban's spokespeople including Choi Soung-ha chastised Inner City Press for asking, and demanded that the names of 51 South Korea staffers of the Secretariat be removed from Inner City Press' reporting.

hi - good reporting and keep it up. On the Koreans in Secretariat story, I think the question to ask is this:

"No previous UN Secretary-General has brought more than a single national to work in his office, usually as a personal assistant or press officer (Kofi Annan brought zero, Boutros brought one Egyptian... to be his personal spokesman, Perez de Cuellar brought on junior diplomat to help him. Why has Ban Ki-Moon needed to bring so many and appoint them to such high positions (ASG, D1, etc)? What is different?"

There is a Korean 'team' which is a virtual cabinet, shadowing and if necessary circumventing all normal systems. good luck."

Inner City Press even before Ban's Day 1 asked about financial transparency. It would end, a decade later, with Ban refusing to say who paid for his travel, even what “carbon offsets” he supposed bought.

On Ban's first day at work, after walking in with Vijay Nambiar who would go on to cover up genocide in Myanmar after participating in it in Sri Lanka in the White Flag Killings, Ban was asked about the death penalty (for Saddam Hussein) and replied that it is “up to member states.” His first spokesperson Michele Montas tried to repair the damage.

In late 2016 Inner City Press saw Montas in the UN, from the “focus booth” where it does what work it can after Ban and his Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach evicted it from its long time UN office.

The UN refused to meaningfully answer on those conflicts of interest. On November 4, Inner City Press reported Ban Ki-ho's business in Myanmar, including that Ki-ho was on a “UN delegation” in the country and had done mining in Shan state, a war zone.

After Inner City Press asked the UN about Ban Ki-hi having writing and signed a letter to Ban Ki-moon to join the UN Global Compact -- involved in other Ban Ki-moon scandals -- and they refused to answer that, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson when was the last time Ban Ki-moon spoke with Ban Ki-ho.

Ban Ki-moon has similarly denied contacts with his nephew Dennis Bahn, recently fined over $500,000 for forging documents to sell real estate in Vietnam, in connection with which he was quoted that Ban Ki-moon could get Qatar's sovereign wealth fund to buy the building.

As Ban Ki-moon's time at the UN ran down, and he closed the UN Press Briefing Room for a Korean-only press conference on December 20, his spokespeople said that Ban Ki-ho is no longer with one of the two companies, KD Power, then used this to claim he no longer does business in Myanmar.

Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon promoted his own son in law, Siddharth Chatterjee, to the top UN job in Kenya without recusing himself. But that is another story of Ban Ki-moon's nepotism and corruption, which we will pursue. Watch this site.